The most recent pre-release build of Apple’s Mac OS X Leopard operating system began making its way into developers’ hands this past weekend, carrying with it a number of interface tweaks and a lengthy list of recommended testing suggestions. Screenshots and video clips taken of the new build, labeled Mac OS X Leopard build 9A527, show Apple to have reduced the transparency of the Mac OS menubar from previous builds, making it more opaque. Some developers had argued that level of transparency in previous builds gave the software – and Mac OS desktop in general – a cheaper, more rugged look.
The video in the link is gone.
Yikes. This story will only fan the flames of suspicion of Microsoft considering the whole fiasco with Vista’s serial number authorization.
Uh… wrong article?
It sounds like Apple is fully into the polishing phase now, so I guess we might manage to see 10.5 by October…
Exactly. It amazes me how people are surprised that they are ramping up since so many more internal resources have been redirected from the iPhone and back to OS X proper.
I’m gonna be somewhat surprised if they get it out by October. I’ve been on the latest build now for the last couple of days, and I have found several problems. The dock is buggy for example (Thunderbird icon disappears when new mail is recieved, and only shows the green circle with the number of new messages in it. Some programs never stop bouncing after being started, etc.) Furthermore, I’ve run into quite a few repaint issues as well, and some font rendering problems. They still have quite a few bugs to fix I think.
That gave me a silly mental image of an entire dock full of simultaneously bouncing icons.
been seeing more of these leaks…the 3d taskbar thing is ridiculous, more screen real estate lost to bling
http://bayimg.com/nAbicaaba
greyscale UI? UGLY, you can mod me down but you know this is going to be met with groans. “time machine” indeed…apple had better equip the time machine app to let the UI go back in time too
Menu bar is gray due to the black backdrop behind the semi-opaque menu that creates a blend.
Very Openstep and non-distracting.
The 3D Shelf/Dock being that Gray makes the icons snap and the active blue light shine to make it clear it’s a running process.
“the 3d taskbar thing is ridiculous, more screen real estate lost to bling ”
The default dock on the three versions of OS X I’ve used has always been too big. Lucky for me you can change the size in the settings. I would bet you can do this with the 3d dock too.
You can resize the new dock. I loved Leopard when using it, but the 3d dock is not that nice compared to the one in tiger. Having said that, there is a lot to like about Leopard. I’m wondering if the 3d dock is hinting at some other 3d changes to the finder?
Thare are some new 3d things in the finder. but they are not really very useful.
Edited 2007-08-28 21:21
I always put the dock on auto hide. Also, after using Leopard for 2 months, I’ve begun to prefer the Leopard menu bar and dock.
I like the new Dock (as long as you can like the Dock itself), but the new menubar is ugly.
Maybe the original idea was to match with the new iMacs, but they couldn’t imagine that so much people finds it ugly, so they’re trying to make it more appealing… but the iMacs are out, so they can’t switch back to white.
“the 3d taskbar thing is ridiculous, more screen real estate lost to bling ”
>>>>> obviously a comment from a windows user! i hear similar comments from other windows users regarding the OSX Dock. they seem to expect it to act like the “taskbar” in widows… reminding them, that they are NOT using windows… and providing them with a little OSX GUI insight usually silences their pro windows comments!
currently, setting the dock to auto-hide works GREAT! i am sure the 3d “DOCK” will work just as well while being auto hidden!
if you expect OSX to act like windows… you will get frustrated!!!!
1. Autohide the dock, and use it as a app launcher. (i choose NOT to minimize windows to the dock (like a MS Task Bar)
2. turn on expose and use hot corners instead of keyboard/mouse button (much better than minimizing windows to the dock…
there… you’ve got the finest, most productive GUI available on any OS!!!!
i look forward to 10.5….
Edited 2007-08-28 19:11
Yes, I’ve used Leopard for some time and it’s like being back in the early 90’s with all that dark grey. And now with the black & grey imacs the whole thing is going to look really dark
I agree on the 3D thing too. It sort of makes sense if you’ve got the dock at the bottom of the screen, but put the dock at the side of the screen and it looks ridiculous (this is why there are no screenshots of Leopard with the dock in anything other than the default position.)
Edited 2007-08-29 01:43 UTC
I don’t mind the grey at all, as long as it’s done in a sober and clean fashion, like the original NeXTStep interface or the current iTunes. What I do mind is that the dock and the menu bar, so easily appears busy, because they are affected by the environment around them using transparency and reflections. If the menu bar was a plain solid iTunes matching gray, there wouldn’t be any problems at all.
I think their new aluminum-and-glass theme, is what Jobs really wants. He wants to match up the user interface with the current product materials and the UI guys are sweating over it and just fail to get it right.
The dock is reflective. Why is it again that people don’t want glossy screens many times? Well, that would be to avoid reflections…
I don’t get it. The iPhone has a very pretty and well done interface. Why didn’t they just copy that, if they really have to change things for the sake of changing them?
I don’t mind the grey at all, as long as it’s done in a sober and clean fashion, like the original NeXTStep interface or the current iTunes
It’s darker than the current iTunes interface I think, darker than the Uno-theme. Just too dark for me, they should keep it light like Tiger (imho).
The dock is reflective. Why is it again that people don’t want glossy screens many times? Well, that would be to avoid reflections…
Yeah but those are reflections on the screen, not in the ui itself because reflections on the screen screw up the colors for photographers and graphic designers.
Still the reflection effect is fun for about 2 minutes but reminds me too much of those stupid java applets we used to have.
My mood goes down everytime I see those screenshots. It reminds me of Windows pre-2000, where MS thought, (180, 180, 180) would be a perfect RGB triple. In fact, It’s not.
I feel like under a highway bridge with these gray windows
These shots actually look pretty decent. I don’t mind the grey at all. Grey will make other colors pop out more. One of my main PCs has an entirely grey GUI, and I don’t mind it at all
Browser: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows 95; PalmSource; Blazer 3.0) 16;160×160
yea… thats a great question! the windows in MacOS have ALWAYS been grey!!!!!
KDE4/plasma/oxygen looks better IMHO
http://www.nuno-icons.com/images/estilo/image2274.png
Edited 2007-08-29 06:21
looks better ?
bah… just looks as ugly as vista…